Architectural Historian... or Pervert?
I was researching the Greenpoint Historic district that I live in and came across this description of my building:
1889. Theobald Engelhardt.
Brick and brownstone Queen Anne. The bracketed canopies over the entrances are lusty celebrations of entry.
Um... That's kind of a wierd way to describe my house, or any house for that matter.
mike sold out at - 14:46
Credit where credit is due
2.21.2005
The Gates... At Night?
Went to the park today to see The Gates with about 1/4 of the rest of the population of the city. Really very cool. I took my camera along to (as I was taught in photo class) capture a unique angle on it. I think maybe by doing some long-exposure shots at night I may be halfway there...
mike sold out at - 00:32
2.20.2005
Yuck
I visited a concrete plant on Friday for work and all yesterday I had this wierd aftertaste of concrete in my mouth... Gross.
For Smitty- it's the one across the street from your old apartment. You'll be pleased to hear that we're trying to help them move to a more industrial neighborhood than the Northside.
mike sold out at - 11:54
2.16.2005
Such Euphonic Meteorology
Is it me, or is this weather forecast unusually well-written? Is there a bored english major locked in the basement of wunderground.com?
Showers in association with a cold front will move into the region soon...with rain falling mainly on the light side over the next couple of hours. It is not out of the question for a rumble of thunder and a brief heavier period of rain during this time."
mike sold out at - 14:48
2.15.2005
From Friendster
Top artists in my network
1. Radiohead
2. Bjork
3. Beatles
4. Modest Mouse
5. Coldplay
6. Pixies
7. U2
8. Outkast
9. Bill Evans
10. The Cure
Great. So I'm friends with (in order), emo/indie kids, dirty hippies, more indie kids, conservative christians, white kids who think they like hip-hop, lameOs and goth kids.
mike sold out at - 23:42
2.13.2005
I'm a travelin', travelin', travelin' man
Been on two trips in two weekends.
the lady and I went to Bermuda because we found cheap plane tickets. It was nice and fun. But they have very few places to eat. It's beautiful, though.
She demonstrates the dunking chair used to torture wayward Bermudians in days of yore
Water + iron = rust
dem buildings is a bunch of funky colors
True Bermuda fact: someone said "good show" to me and they were serious. Also they drive on the left, which brought up the idea to yell "holy shit we're driving on the wrong side of the road" while on the bus (didn't actually happen).
Thence to a family thing in Houston, aka crazy highway town, USA, aka Corbusier's wet dream, because they have the most 12-lane highways with crazy elevated HOV lane's I've ever seen. Yuck to auto-dependency.
Yay to the house sided entirely with beercans
Space center in Houston
This is the room where astronauts are always talking to from the space.
Smooth ending over Middle Bay, Long Island after a plane flight where shortly after takeoff the plane was either a) right next to a lighting strike, or b) struck by lightning. Quite a harrowing experience.
mike sold out at - 23:10
2.08.2005
New Words
Chumpelstiltskins (n) - 1. One who is a chump. "Catch you later, Chumpelstiltskins."
Self-Hating Hipster (n) - 1. A hipster who can't stand other hipsters. 2. One who complains about gentrification yet is responsible for it him/herself.
mike sold out at - 23:10
2.07.2005
Back in Black(lists)?
So apparently 42 people were banned from entering a public North Dakota event where P-Bushie was speaking. It then turns out that they had merely expressed liberal points of view and were not security risks. Guess if you have liberal views, he's not your president.
33 on list connected to F-M democracy group.
mike sold out at - 18:34
2.03.2005
She's Too Ugly To Harass, Your Honor
New York City - Manhattan news:
Councilmember Jennings (D-Jamaica), has repeatedly said he was innocent and the women, who either worked for his office or the council, were too unattractive to warrant his attention.
swish.
mike sold out at - 10:29
2.01.2005
The West Side Plan
I don't normally write explicitly about policy + politics on this blog, but I had to take an entry to write about a political fight close to my field because of a conversation I had this week that made me realize that more people are paying attention to this than I thought (with implications for the Mayoral race).
Josh asked me this weekend why the stadium and West Side redevelopment is a bad idea. My basic response is that it's not a bad idea, it's just being done in a high-handed way that doesn't justify the costs and the way it's being subsidized is unecessary. Sure, rezone the area in a thoughful way to encourage development. Sure, build a new subway line to the area (although a crosstown light rail light would be more efficient and cheaper). Sure, create new parks and allow for the creation of new housing. But the market will support all of this if the city needs it. We don't need to subsidize it.
What follows is a deconstruction of the Bloomberg administration's spin on the West Side Development and Jets Stadium I wrote earlier in the year that was originally posted on The Yankee Rag.
The Far West Side: How to Destroy a Community, by D. Doctoroff (& R. Moses)
Because public officials who do redevelopment projects have a hard time selling projects that cost a lot, displace many homes and workplaces, and benefit a few economic interests, they inevitably fall back on these aphorisms to sell their project to the public.
1. Pretend that nobody lives there
By saying that the space is abandoned, you make your project appear to be not affecting anyone who may already be in that space. For the Far West Side, the Deputy Mayor of Economic Development has asserted that in the proposed rezoning, no less than 120 residents will be affected. In fact, over [21,000] residents live in the neighborhood [and there are 9,000 industrial jobs, not counting the 6,000+ apparel jobs in the Garment Center].
2. Gloss over the cost to the public, or better yet, obfuscate it in voluminous financial documents
If it costs the government nothing, why shouldn't we build this project? In fact, the City downplays or shrouds the indirect cost to be borne by the public in the Payment-In-Lieu-of-Taxes program (PILOT), the cost of financing tax-free bonds for the Jets, the cost of the #7 subway extension, and the subsidizing of private development around the stadium.
Cost for stadium: $1.4 billion (40% publicly funded), making it the most expensive pro-sports stadium ever.
Cost for Javitts convention center expansion: $1.1 billion, all publicly funded
Cost for #7 train expansion: $2.2 billion ($1 billion per mile), supposedly funded by the PILOT program for the West Side
3. Have over-exuberant predictions of the project's economic impacts
The pace of development predicted by the City and the Jets have been cited by several vaunted groups (Regional Plan Association, Independent Budget Office, & others) as being too optimistic, leading to a slow return on investment (if any) by the city.
4. Use the J-word liberally and without basis so people unaffected by the project are passively in support of it
JOBS!!! Since the ordinary public doesn't really care what happens to people in other parts of the city, just say that the project brings jobs, even if the statement is without basis. JOBS!!! When was the last time a stadium hired 6,000 people?
5. Don't acknowledge that the project benefits only a few elite economic interests
Surely the Jets will have nothing to gain from having the most expensive stadium in the country built for them by the city, tax- and nearly rent-free? Since all the money spent at the stadium for tickets and concessions go to the Jets, then don't all the proceeds go to them? Most publicly-financed stadiums are now widely acknowledged to have benefited the team owners, but not the public or municipalities.
6. Minimize the systemic impacts to the city
Traffic won't be tied in knots and everyone will take mass transit to the stadium. The Jets say that 70% of all visitors will take mass transit to the stadium, far beyond any other sports venue in America, including Madison Square Garden (56% of visitors).
Follow these principles if you want to sell the public snake oil and you'll be sure to ram the project through before someone takes notice. Right?
Did I mention that the project will bring jobs? JOBS!!!
